342 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



to market, not knowing even if the price 

 obtained will cover the cost of carriage ! 

 He will have to relinquish his childish belief 

 that his particular miller and his particular 

 salesman are going to give him preferential 

 rates ; and I agree with Professor Long 

 that the farmer is much more likely to 

 co-operate when a state official goes round 

 and tells him to do so, than when his neigh- 

 bour (who might possibly get the job of being 

 the local secretary of the society !) tries to be 

 persuasive. 



There is one strong reason why the small 

 man still sticks to his '* dealer " or miller. It 

 is because the dealer or miller is generally 

 willing to buy eggs and butter from the 

 small man, who is four miles from a station 

 and has his one horse at work in the fields. It 

 may be that he buys his feeding stuff from 

 the miller at top prices, and sells produce at 

 lowest market rates, but as he manages to 

 get rid of his produce without carriage he is 

 satisfied. Not until agricultural co-operative 

 societies arrange to fill up the waggons with 

 farm produce, instead of going home empty 

 on the return journey, will they succeed in 

 making much progress among the smaller 



